6 of the Top iBuyer Companies That Want to Buy Your Home in 2024

At HomeLight, our vision is a world where every real estate transaction is simple, certain, and satisfying. Therefore, we promote strict editorial integrity in each of our posts.

Disclaimer: Information in this blog post is meant to be used for educational purposes only and provide a high level overview of some of the top iBuyer companies and programs. However, program details can frequently change. Please visit the iBuyer’s website for the most up-to-date information on each individual program’s fees, market coverage, business model, and more.

Selling a house is often a complete pain. When a potential buyer is scheduled to tour your home the next day, you can’t hit the sack. You have to bust out the vacuum and rush to tidy up so that the house looks presentable. Or you end up bleeding cash over repairs for the furnace and roof to attract a decent offer.

By selling your house to one of the iBuyer companies, you can avoid many of these headaches. The term iBuyer refers to a group of high-tech house flipping businesses that cropped up in the mid 2010s. Before you work with one, you’ll have to weigh the pros of convenience and speed against the possibility of receiving less than fair-market value and paying service fees.

Get a Quick Cash Offer For Your Home Today

It’s difficult to sell a house, especially under the pressure of a deadline. Use HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform to sell when you’re ready without the hassle of paying for repairs, prepping for listing, or dealing with showings.

To help you navigate through selecting an iBuyer, we’ve put together a roundup on some of the top iBuyers in 2024 and details about working with each.

Who are the iBuyer companies?

The term iBuyer encompasses a list of companies including Opendoor and Offerpad. We also include information about HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform, which provides you with a competitive all-cash offer to buy your home. Although Zillow was once a top-three iBuyer, it shuttered its iBuyer program in 2021. In early November 2022, Redfin announced the shuttering of its iBuyer arm, RedfinNow, after launching in 2017.

Though each business operates a little differently, iBuyers generally provide a near-instant cash offer for houses, allow you to sell your home mostly or entirely online, and can facilitate much faster closings than a more traditional or financed buyer.

“The biggest advantage is ease,” says Lynn Carteris, a top real estate agent with the Oldham Group serving the San Francisco Bay area in California. “You don’t have to prepare the house; you don’t have to repair the house.”

Working with iBuyers

Though the process varies among iBuyer companies, typically to work with an iBuyer, you would:

  • Go to their website
  • Request a cash offer
  • Decide if you want to accept the instant house offer
  • Communicate your preferred move-out date
  • Close in as few as 10-14 days

Some iBuyers will perform an inspection and may reduce their offer price based on what they find out about the home’s condition. But most will allow you to sell “as is.” iBuyers don’t plan to live in your home; after they make a purchase, they resell the home — in some cases after making light repairs.

How do iBuyers make a cash offer for my home?

iBuyers leverage online appraisal technology and other methods to determine a home’s value and what they’re willing to pay. They also usually buy and resell homes at a higher volume than other types of real estate investors, so their goal is to flip more homes to make up for a lower profit margin per flip. As such, their offers tend to be closer to market value than what you’d see from a flipper who uses the 70% after-repair-value standard.

Some of the top iBuyer companies in 2024

Now that you have an idea of how iBuyers work, let’s review some of the top iBuyer companies of today, how they differ, and what to expect from working with each.

1. Simple Sale

With Simple Sale, HomeLight provides an all-cash offer for homes in almost any condition through our network of cash buyers. Our platform enables you to sell your home in as few as 10 days rather than what can be weeks or months.

You can skip staging and repairs, and sell without agent commissions, or upfront selling costs. Answer a few basic questions about your home’s condition, how much work it needs, and your selling timeline to get started with Simple Sale today.

Locations: Available across most of the nation — input your address to see if we could provide a cash offer for your property.

2. Opendoor

Launched in 2014, Opendoor is considered the nation’s pioneering iBuying platform. It buys homes directly from sellers and the company’s online platform makes it easy to receive a no-obligation offer in minutes.

According to the company’s FAQ page, Opendoor typically buys homes in the range of $100,000- $600,000, but in some cases will go up to $1.4 million depending on the market.

Opendoor buys homes of varying condition, but criteria like a short sale, unpermitted work, or dated materials may impact whether the company is willing and able to purchase a home.

Locations: Opendoor has grown rapidly since its launch. It currently operates in more than 50 metropolitan areas and counting, including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Phoenix, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, and Tampa.

3. Offerpad

Launched in 2015, Offerpad is one of the largest iBuyers by transaction volume, alongside Opendoor. It collects information about a property with a three-minute questionnaire for sellers to fill out, according to the company website. Sellers also have the option to take Offerpad on a short virtual walkthrough of the home to inform the company’s offer. Offerpad provides no-obligation cash offers to sellers in 24 hours.

Locations: As of this writing, Offerpad is buying homes in the metropolitan areas of 14 states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Trade-in programs

Some iBuyer programs are specifically tailored to help people who are buying and selling a home at the same time. Let’s review some of the main iBuyer companies in this space.

4. Buy Before You Sell

With Buy Before You Sell, HomeLight evaluates your existing property using a proprietary algorithm to figure out how much of your home equity you can unlock to put toward the down payment of your new home, moving expenses, closing expenses, or property repairs.

This allows you to make a contingency-free offer on a home, even though your current home has not yet been sold. Once you move in to your new home, your agent will list your previous, now vacant home to attract the strongest offer.

With Buy Before You Sell, you can avoid potentially paying two mortgages or rental fees, and you won’t have to move twice.

Locations: Available across most of the nation — input your address to see if your home qualifies.

5. Knock Home Swap

Let’s say you want to buy a new home but need to sell your old one first. Beginning in July 2020, Knock’s Home Swap Program underwrites a mortgage for your new home and provides you with a down payment advance, according to the company website.

This allows sellers to make offers on homes with no home sale contingency, despite still needing to sell their current home. You move into your new home while Knock covers the mortgage for your old one using a special program for up to six months. When your old home sells, you pay Knock back.

Locations: According to the Knock Home Swap Cities Map, the program is available in 19 states and counting, including Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington state, and Wisconsin.

6. Orchard

Since 2017, Orchard has been helping sellers make stronger offers by allowing them to unlock their home value upfront to put toward their next home, according to the company’s website. Orchard then handles cleaning, listing, and showing a seller’s previous home and manages updates to help the home sell for maximum value. Sellers only pay Orchard a service fee once their old home is sold.

Locations: Orchard currently operates in six markets, including Atlanta, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, and San Antonio.

Zillow shuttered its iBuyer program (Zillow Offers) in 2021

Zillow is known as the place to shop for a home. But in 2018, the real estate company launched its own iBuyer services for sellers called Zillow Offers. However, the program was short-lived. In November 2021, Zillow announced the end of Zillow Offers, citing the inability to forecast home prices and balance sheet volatility.

RedfinNow closed in 2022

Redfin is an online real estate brokerage company launched in 2005. In 2017, the company started RedfinNow, its iBuyer business. Faced with the rapid downward shift in the housing market in response to higher interest rates, the company announced it was winding down its iBuyer operations while laying off approximately 13% of the company’s workforce.

A HomeLight infographic about steps to follow when working with iBuyer companies.

iBuyer company FAQs

iBuyer companies had big plans to shake up the real estate market with immediate cash offers and quicker closing timelines when they hit the scene a few years ago. But as the housing market cools after the pandemic-triggered housing boom, iBuyer companies are struggling to stay afloat. The ones that remain are having to adjust their models, which means buying fewer homes and for less.

In 2022, iBuyer companies represented only 1% of real estate transactions nationwide, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Do iBuyers make fair market offers?

While iBuyers often offer more than house flippers, you likely won’t receive the full fair-market value for your home when selling to an iBuyer. This is because iBuyer companies typically purchase homes “as is”—saving you the time and money of having to deal with repairs, showings, and prepping your home for sale.

How much does it cost to sell to an iBuyer?

Although iBuyer companies do not charge a commission like a real estate agent, they do charge a service fee, typically around 5%. The national average real estate commission is 5.8%.

Key takeaways about today’s iBuyers

We’ve gone over a lot in this guide, including who the major iBuyers are, what they do, and some of the differences among them. If you’re weighing whether to sell your home to one of the iBuyer companies, consider these key takeaways:

  • An iBuyer company runs property data through an algorithm to determine how much they are willing to pay for your home and to provide you with an instant all-cash offer. Some will take additional steps to see your home virtually or in-person to adjust their offer.
  • You won’t have to deal with staging or showing the home when you sell to an iBuyer. You can also skip repairs, though an iBuyer may reduce their offer price based on an inspection.
  • You can close within weeks or even days due to a lack of lender involvement, which is a huge help if you’re dealing with a major life change or need cash quickly.
  • Current market conditions have made it difficult for iBuyers to stay in business, and the iBuyer companies that remain have had to adjust their business models.
  • iBuyer companies may offer a fair but lower sales price in exchange for the convenience they provide.
  • In exchange for purchasing your home, most iBuyers charge some kind of service fee, often to the tune of 5%, rather than a commission you’d pay for a real estate agent’s services.

FAQs on the top iBuyer companies that want to buy your home

Lastly, while some clients relish the speed and ease of an iBuyer sale, the iBuyer experience might not suit everyone. If you have a more flexible timeline and are eager to see how your home would perform on the open market, you can always talk to a top real estate agent in your area to explore your options. If you aren’t sure who to contact, HomeLight would be happy to make an introduction through our agent-matching service.

Header Image Source: (Evelyn Paris / Unsplash)